Small business support

Whether you work for a small business or rely on one for the things you need, we all understand the critical role that startups and expanding businesses play in our communities and our lives. That’s why we continue to do everything we can to partner with entrepreneurs and small business owners. These stories highlight local lending and investing, personal ingenuity, and a passion to create and retain jobs and offer new products and services. We hope they remind you of what we can achieve together.

yoobi-long-dec2016defaultPlayertrueblack/assets/images/yoobi_878x494.jpg|little girl drawing|Learn about how Yoobi is creating a social impact with school supplies||

SUPER: Ido Leffler, Co-founder and CEO, Yoobi

Ido Leffler: The thing that kept going through my head was, "You be awesome. You be amazing. You be whatever you want to be." And I walked out of the shower, and I went up to my wife. I said, "Babe, I've got it: Yoobi."

Who here likes surprises? [children cheering]

Yoobi is a company that makes bright, colorful stuff for the school, home, or office that gives back. For every Yoobi item you buy, a Yoobi item is donated to a classroom in need right here in the US. It's that simple.

SUPER: Jeffrey Klinger, Private Wealth Advisor, Merrill Lych

Jeffrey Klinger: Yoobi is a fascinating, colorful company that is for profit and for purpose. It's just one of those brilliant ideas where they're getting kids excited about going to school.

SUPER: Justin Wolff, Chief Giving Officer, Yoobi

Justin Wolff: This is not a gimmick, this is not just marketing. This is making a difference each and every single day. Having a kid tell you, "This is better than my birthday," it tells us that what we are doing here really matters.

Ido Leffler: We've provided free school supplies to over 2 million kids. And sometimes we get to go to those schools ourselves, and actually give the classroom packs to every single kid in that school.

Are you guys ready for your special delivery? [children cheering]

Oh, that's awesome.

(all) Three, two, one.

Ido Leffler: The average school teacher spends $485 out of his or her pocket every single year on school supplies. And supplies, as small as they are, are very meaningful when it comes to building up the confidence that they can go home and actually do their homework, and come back with something that they can be proud of. There's no reason why a child who goes to school in one zip code should be disadvantaged versus a child in another zip code.

Ana Escobedo: There's nothing more basic than pencils and paper and supplies. And that seems minor to people from the outside, but in the school, it's a reality. And I think Yoobi will bring that perspective that we need support at schools everywhere.

Ido Leffler: For all the crayons you provided to color their dreams, and for the countless hours you dedicate after the closing bell rings, we thank you. Give your teacher a nice big group hug.

Jeffrey Klinger: In many definitions of the word, Ido is just brilliant. He's one of those people that you just want to be around because you know that doing well by him means he's going to do well by others.

Ido Leffler: When I told Jeff about Yoobi, and I told him what we were planning on doing, Jeff and the rest of the Bank of America team turned around and said, "We've got you." We had another banking relationship when we first started. And it was fraught with difficulty. I didn't have crazy high hopes based on previous experiences with other groups. And they not only came through, but they came through in spades. And you know, it's very rare to say that you're friends with your bank.

Jeffrey Klinger: Friends are important. Business is obviously important as well. And when you can combine those, you know, you can lay your head on the pillow at night knowing that what you've done for the day is a good thing.

Ido Leffler: We wouldn't be able to do what we do genuinely if it wasn't for the help of Bank of America. As we've needed to grow the business, scale the business, move into bigger offices, as our international transactions have grown from hundreds of thousands to millions upon millions of dollars, to bringing in millions of dollars worth of products that we're giving away, we can be rest assured our banking needs are done. And that is something that allows us to take our vision and mission and think bigger than we've ever thought before.

Learn about how Yoobi is creating a social impact with school supplies1359940|enter782|cr-en402_self1359940|enter782|2014_859||1359940|enter782|2014_581||

Who here likes surprises? [children cheering]

Yoobi is a company that makes bright, colorful stuff for the school, home, or office that gives back. For every Yoobi item you buy, a Yoobi item is donated to a classroom in need right here in the US. It's that simple.

SUPER: Jeffrey Klinger, Private Wealth Advisor, Merrill Lych

Jeffrey Klinger: Yoobi is a fascinating, colorful company that is for profit and for purpose. It's just one of those brilliant ideas where they're getting kids excited about going to school.

SUPER: Justin Wolff, Chief Giving Officer, Yoobi

Justin Wolff: This is not a gimmick, this is not just marketing. This is making a difference each and every single day. Having a kid tell you, "This is better than my birthday," it tells us that what we are doing here really matters.

Ido Leffler: We've provided free school supplies to over 2 million kids. And sometimes we get to go to those schools ourselves, and actually give the classroom packs to every single kid in that school.

Are you guys ready for your special delivery? [children cheering]

Oh, that's awesome.

(all) Three, two, one.

Ido Leffler: The average school teacher spends $485 out of his or her pocket every single year on school supplies. And supplies, as small as they are, are very meaningful when it comes to building up the confidence that they can go home and actually do their homework, and come back with something that they can be proud of. There's no reason why a child who goes to school in one zip code should be disadvantaged versus a child in another zip code.

Ana Escobedo: There's nothing more basic than pencils and paper and supplies. And that seems minor to people from the outside, but in the school, it's a reality. And I think Yoobi will bring that perspective that we need support at schools everywhere.

Ido Leffler: For all the crayons you provided to color their dreams, and for the countless hours you dedicate after the closing bell rings, we thank you. Give your teacher a nice big group hug.

Jeffrey Klinger: In many definitions of the word, Ido is just brilliant. He's one of those people that you just want to be around because you know that doing well by him means he's going to do well by others.

Ido Leffler: When I told Jeff about Yoobi, and I told him what we were planning on doing, Jeff and the rest of the Bank of America team turned around and said, "We've got you." We had another banking relationship when we first started. And it was fraught with difficulty. I didn't have crazy high hopes based on previous experiences with other groups. And they not only came through, but they came through in spades. And you know, it's very rare to say that you're friends with your bank.

Jeffrey Klinger: Friends are important. Business is obviously important as well. And when you can combine those, you know, you can lay your head on the pillow at night knowing that what you've done for the day is a good thing.

Ido Leffler: We wouldn't be able to do what we do genuinely if it wasn't for the help of Bank of America. As we've needed to grow the business, scale the business, move into bigger offices, as our international transactions have grown from hundreds of thousands to millions upon millions of dollars, to bringing in millions of dollars worth of products that we're giving away, we can be rest assured our banking needs are done. And that is something that allows us to take our vision and mission and think bigger than we've ever thought before.

Lisa Bucheski: This is home, because of the ownership and the family and the loyalty. The drivers feel that the office employees feel that.

SUPER: BOB FREGA, SENIOR CLIENT MANAGER, BANK OF AMERICA

Bob Frega: They sell reliability; they sell teamwork, which is why they are so successful.

Chris Grato: Sandy. The name heard a lot, right? I don’t think anybody is prepared to walk into it. I don’t even like talking about it, but that’s what it is. We came into about a hundred trucks saltwater damages or on fire. Literally as we’re walking in they’re in flames. That was a sight.

Lisa Bucheski: It was complete devastation here between the trucks that were burned in the yard and our offices that were basically destroyed.

Kyle Grato: Here you have a very stable company and then literally snap of a finger you have nothing.

Stephanie Grato: It was a nightmare. It was an emotional time.

Chris Grato: The shock subsides, and then you have to do business.

Stephanie Grato: Our customers, they’ve always stood by us, and we owe it to them to get them their freight. We weren’t gonna let a storm to close up shop

Chris Grato: I was on the phone with bank of America within 48 hours. We need trucks what do we do? How do we get this ball moving?

Bob Frega: We got a call saying we need fifty some odd trucks. Our approval process could be cumbersome, but when we have to move we move. We put the transaction together and financed all those trucks.

Chris Grato: Within three days we had 25 brand new tucks all because of bank of America.

Stephanie Grato: Little by little as the days went on, we started building our fleet back.

Bob Frega: Because they had access to the capital they needed to get the trucks, they had the wherewithal and the knowledge to get their trucks up and running. They didn’t miss a beat. It’s a bright future for International Motor Freight.

Chris Grato: We started truck numbers over. Before the storm we were at 183, and to go back to number 1 with the baggage it represents, it’s a fresh start; a new beginning.

From Destruction to Expansionbankofamerica1359940|enter782|cr-en402_self1359940|enter782|2014_859||1359940|enter782|2014_581||

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